Sneak Peek: TBS New Series '10 Items or Less'

Turner Broadcasting's cable station TBS has undergone programming changes since its incarnation back in 1976, going from the "The SuperStation" to the "Very Funny" station. Or, perhaps it's the Very Funny SuperStation.

Ah, but the question is...

How funny is it?

The station airs a stock group of syndicated sitcom series which have a track record for being Very Funny. And, come November, they'll be offering a new original series airing late-nights, geared for the adult market and, promising to be Very Funny.

I was lucky enough to secure a sneak peek at the first two episodes of 10 Items or Less, set to premiere November 27 at 11 PM ET/PT.

This series is the brainchild of creators and executive producers Nancy Hower, Robert Hickey, and John Lehr (who also stars in the show). It's not quite the typical sitcom as they're using a "loosely-scripted" format and depending on the cast for improvisation to make it Very Funny.

Does it work? Let me just go into the premise a bit before I answer that question...

Leslie Pool, played by John Lehr, is a rather unsuccessful businessman in New York City who takes it upon himself to run his deceased father's grocery store (dubbed Greens & Grains) back in his hometown in Ohio. Greens & Grains is a small independent grocery with a handful of quirky employees and a very competitive super grocery chain store right across the street - the Super Value Mart. The show is actually filmed in a real supermarket with real customers coming and going. And, it's "loosely-scripted" which means that while they have a detailed outline for each show, the actors don't work by script. They're given a general idea of where the episode wants to go and they're encouraged to improvise.

So, a lot of this show's success will depend on the comedic quick thinking of the cast. Does it work with the cast at hand? I think it does on the whole. These grocery employees are indeed "out there" but I myself have worked in stores over the years. Dang, some of these character-types do exist. I swear they do. Yeah, they may be exaggerated to a point, but they're out there. They really are. And, the actors in the series seem to be into character and thinking on their feet for the most part.

My personal favorite character interaction in the two episodes I saw was that between Christopher Liam Moore as Richard and Greg Davis Jr., as Buck. Buck's a bagger who, when offered a move up the ladder to cashier, sees the dollar signs and the big bucks in the esteemed cashier role. Richard is the current cashier, a very particular and rather persnickety individual. He feels threatened by Buck's aspiration to be a cashier, yet strangely drawn to following Buck's lead at times. Together, I find these two characters to be a hoot. (Yes, Very Funny.)

Overall, I think this series probably isn't going to take over the world, but it will attract an audience, especially in the 11 PM time slot when much of the programming is on the serious side. I had a few chortles and at least one guffaw while watching it - and I like to guffaw. I don't do it often enough.

One thing I think took a bit away from the show was the shakiness of the camera during rather still-focused shots. I'm a reality TV buff and I'm used to that sort of camera work, albeit I'm obviously a bit ignorant about the correct technical jargon for it. But, darn it, stop wiggling so much when focused on one character for a few moments! It detracts from the scene on hand.

The series will air Monday nights at 11 PM ET/PT on TBS starting November 27th. The cast includes John Lehr, Jennifer Elise Cox, Robert Clendenin, Greg Davis Jr., Chris Payne Gilbert, Kirsten Gronfield, Christopher Liam Moore, and Roberta Valderrama.

Tonight's 'Survivor 13: Cook Islands' - 10/26

Tonight's show isn't a real episode. It's that mid-season recap with some new material thrown in. It's likely I won't blog about the show itself unless there's some fantastically amazing new material we haven't previously seen.

Of course, if you want to comment about the show's happenings here, go for it. I'll be listening and probably comment a bit myself. But I doubt an actual entry, per se. There will be no East Coast Updates as there won't really be any action.

Enjoy the show!

'Lost' - "Every Man For Himself"

Graphic artist Zoetawny made me another new tag! Cool. Now I can rotate them! (She rocks, y'know.)

I swear I'm getting just a tad more lost each week watching Lost, aren't you? Perhaps I was doing better when I knew a bit less, the days of pushing the button, a strange French woman, and mysterious hatches. I really can't figure the Others out at all. They keep claiming they're not evil and the show has shown us evil in the "good" people stranded on the island.

I can't help but think of Benjamin Limus (whom I used to think of as Henry Gale) as being almost the persona of evil. Michael Emerson, who plays the role, is perfect for the part and he can creep me out with a single glance. How can he be on the side of Good? I just don't see it.

Tonight's episode had no polar bears running amok and didn't really answer any of our past questions, per se. Did it bring up a few new questions? Well, of course. It's Lost, after all.

The show opened up on the camp where Desmond's character is getting even a bit more quirky. He told Claire that she should move the baby down the beach as he needed to fix her shelter roof. Charlie, jealous and jumpy dude that he is, balked and Desmond seemed to give up on the idea. But, he didn't give up.

Instead, he asked the still-not-officially-introduced character Paulo for a golf club. He rigged it to a wooden pole and thus, he saved the world as easy as pushing a button. Okay, it actually acted as a lightning rod and took a blow that supposedly would have struck Claire's shelter. How did he know a storm would hit so suddenly? And, more importantly, how did he know lightning would strike right there? I haven't a clue. I said he's growing more quirky.

The majority of the show focused on the captives - Jack, Sawyer, and Kate. In flashback sequences this week, Sawyer's past was expanded upon. Again, the flashback sequences were interspersed with the "now" and they both tied in together in theme. I'm separating them here so I don't get dizzy jumping back and forth from past to present.

Sawyer in Flashbacks
The flashbacks focused on Sawyer's prison days. He was a tough guy (of course) and had problems with the prison warden. Or, so he claimed to a new prisoner who seemed to be abused by the inmates and receiving special privileges from the warden. That guy stole ten million dollars, yet said he didn't do it. The warden and other prisoners were sure he did it and hid the money.

In one sequence, both Sawyer and the other prisoner (Munson?) were visited by women. Munson's woman was blackmailing him and Sawyer's woman was the girlfriend whom he swindled and the reason he was in jail. She showed him a baby picture and claimed it was his daughter, Clementine. That explains why he's sung the song before. He denied being the father.

He grew closer with Munson after the visit and, dang, the con man conned the other con man. Munson told him where the ten million dollars was hidden and asked him to relocate it for him.

It turns out it was all a Get Out of Jail Free Card played by Sawyer. He was working for the Feds and the prison warden in a deal to get a hefty commission and leave a free man. He asked that his take, er... commission be put in a fund for Clementine with no way she could find out who gave her the money.

The "Now" on the Island
They've occupied Jack with cartoons, but that just isn't doing the trick. The Others continue to keep Jack separate in the dolphin cage while Sawyer and Kate are in the bear cages, as well as working together on the chain gang. Jack tried to stir up a problem with Juliet by accusing her of being Benjamin's pawn. She denied that Benjamin was the leader.

It was all interrupted by Benjamin himself bursting in. He needed Juliet to attend to Danny's girl (as Sawyer called her), Coleen -- the one who was shot by Sun in the episode before last. Juliet is their only doctor. Meanwhile, Sawyer and Kate see Cole being carried on the stretcher. Sawyer chalks it up to a point for their side and says it's a ticket out of there. I don't really understand his reasoning, but that's okay. I'm lost, of course.

Sawyer came up with a plan to use the food/water/music button in his cage to create a puddle of water and electrocute the next Other who came to the cage. Well, that happened to be Benjamin who beat Sawyer's butt. Sawyer previously said none of the men really knew how to fight. But tonight he found that Benjamin can wipe the floor with him without raising a sweat.

For his attempt against Ben, Sawyer was taken by the others and awakened strapped to a table, then knocked out with a huge needle of something. When he awakened after his surgery of some sort, Ben went bananas shaking a rabbit in a cage until it supposedly died. He told Sawyer that he had implanted pacemakers in both the rabbit and him. If the heart beat goes over a certain rate, the pacemaker would explode and kill him as it did the rabbit. EEK! He gave Sawyer a watch-like heart monitor. As his allowed excited rate is 140 beats per minute, a warning alarm triggers at 125 and he'd need to rest. It was to keep him from attacking others or escaping and he wasn't to tell Kate. Okay.

Meanwhile, Juliet, against the wishes of her Other buddies, wanted Jack to try to save the gunshot victim. They set off alarms to cover any voices, put a hood over his head, and led him by the cages with Kate and Sawyer. They called him, they knew it was him. But he couldn't hear them over the alarms.

He also couldn't save Coleen. She died despite his efforts. So, Danny the Other, went out and beat Sawyer to a pulp just because. All the time he was beating him, Sawyer couldn't fight back because he didn't want the pacemaker to blow up. Also, Danny kept shouting to Kate, "Do you love him? Do you love him?" Finally, when she said she did, he stopped.

But, you must remember, they say they're the Good Guys.

Sawyer, with his macho man image, claimed that Danny "hit like a girl." Kate realized she could fit through the bars at the top of her bear cage and wanted to escape. It worked. She got out and was stunned when Sawyer refused to go with her. He told her that it's "every man for himself" and that she should leave him behind. We know it's the pacemaker-bomb bit, but Kate didn't have a clue. She climbed back in her cage probably figuring she now knows how to get out.

But, she won't escape because that Evil Benjamin was at his bank of monitors watching every moment of it!

Then I got more lost with the next events. Benjamin and his henchment took Sawyer for a long walk up a hill which triggered his monitor. Sawyer thought they were trying to kill him, so did I. Then Ben showed him that the dead rabbit is still alive, said it was only sedated, and that neither Sawyer nor the rabbit had pacemakers. Conning the con man. Of course, that ties in with the flashback sequences. Benjamin says he's a better con man. I say he's just evil personafied.

Then they walked to a cliff which overlooked where the Oceanic 815 crash victims were. I just can't get the significance of that scene at all. To me, all it showed was that there are two separate islands in close proximity in an otherwise wide open sea. Did I miss something?

Back at the Others, Jack had noticed an x-ray of a man's spine as he attended to the gunshot victim. He grilled Juliet about it saying that a tumor on the spine is obvious and that person was in danger. That spine is Benjamin's.

Just one real question for me this week. Why was the rabbit labeled with an 8? It's one of the Lost recurring numbers, but...!

Oh, I'm still Lost. Will I ever be Found?

TV Newsy Bits - Monday, October 23, 2006

Tonight was Heroes night for me once again. I'm hooked. I'm not quite sure how long the premise will be able to be dragged out, though. If they save the world from the one NYC blast, is it over? Or will they "see" more problems and keep saving the world? Now that the ones with the powers are starting to meet up, I'm enjoying the show even more.

And, of course, my favorite character on the show is Hiro, played by Masi Oka. I found an interesting interview with him at Q&A with Masi Oka - if you enjoy the show, check out the interview!

In other stuff:

• Survivor's Cao Boi's local paper had an online write-up about him. Loved or hated on 'Survivor,' Cao Boi still loved at home - Roanoke.com
• 'Lost' Losing its Audience?
• Both Cristina and Cao Boi are scheduled to be on Letterman tonight. I'll be watching!

What did you watch tonight?

'The Amazing Race 10' - Ep. 6 -or- "Dumped in Kuwait"

Seven teams remain. Who will be eliminated next?

Yes, there are still seven teams, at least for the start of the show. Last week's non-elimination leg saved David and Mary, the last team to arrive at the Pit Stop. In a new twist this season, they kept their money and possessions, but were marked for elimination. If they didn't arrive at the Pit Stop first in the next leg (tonight's show), they would have to wait out a 30-minute penalty. That could very well cost them the race.

So, how did it all play out? I'm pleased with tonight's show.

The teams left Chennai (India), the location of their last Pit Stop, headed to Kuwait City. They were given a product placement video clue from Phil Keoghan instructing them to buy airline tickets at a travel agent, then fly to Kuwait where they would drive to the mystery location pictured on their screens.

At the travel agent, we saw not one, but two, "cards" played. Peter lied and said Sarah had a medical emergency with her leg that was dire. While she has the problem with the hydraulic fluid, there's no way they can fix it on the race. I noticed she didn't say one word about her leg. (Dump him, Sarah! He's using you and creeping me out!) The other card was the "We're Beauty Queens" card, used by Dustin and Kandice.

A lot of good the cards did -- all of the teams, including David and Mary, were on the same flight out of Mumbai. Ha! All of the teams also thought to check on the Internet at the travel agency or ask about the mystery location image. So, they all knew they were looking for the Kuwait Towers, too.

Even though the teams bunched up and all took the same flight, they once again bunched up at the Kuwait Towers as they didn't open until 11:00. Each team had to take a number, then search for the next clue when the doors opened. When they opened the clue, included was a Fast Forward - the first of two in this season's race. If a team successfully completes the Fast Forward task, they can go directly to the Pit Stop. Now, who needs the FF the most?

Well, David and Mary! The Cho brothers, Erwin and Godwin, bluffed other teams and indicated that they themselves were going to take the Fast Forward. Actually, they were anticipating David and Mary taking it so they would surely stay in the race. David/Mary, the ChoBros, and Lyn/Karlyn have a tight alliance going on. Even though they both are afraid of heights and it was apparent that the task at the Towers would be height-related, Erwin and Godwin wanted David and Mary to take a chance for first place with the Fast Forward. They rock!

That is where the line for the promo for this week's show took place. Nothing had really happened to the Cho brothers; David and Mary just didn't want them eliminated because they secured the FF for them.

Sure enough, the clue at the Towers was a Roadblock, a task only one member of the team can complete. And, yes, it had to do with heights. The team member had to climb the circular ladder (pictured above) up the side of one of the towers, 610 feet high. Once at the top, the racer had to retrieve a bag with puzzle parts, return to the ground, get more puzzle parts from a trunk, and complete a puzzle which contained a message in Arabic (their next clue).

Of course, Peter immediately said Sarah would climb - "I think you climb here, Sarah." He is so horrible to her and hasn't done not a one physical task. Peter, she has one leg, you creep! You climb! Again, editing may play a part, but they showed him relaxing as she struggled. She did better than Erwin Cho, though. It was evident that he was terrified almost to the point of choking on the task, but he made it. He knew how bad he was with heights and knew he could have easily gone for the Fast Forward.

Meanwhile, Team Kentucky (David and Mary) were off to the Fast Forward. This was an exciting one for them. They had to find a certain oil field and retrieve the clue leading them to the Pit Stop amidst a simulated (yet very real) oil fire. David what thrilled, he had a childhood dream of being a fireman. Both donned protective gear and went for the clue box using shields.

Back at the Towers, the teams all had their puzzles translated by locals and were off to a bead market, then to the Al Sadiq Water Towers where they faced a Detour, a task both members of the team must complete. Detours always are a choice between two tasks, each one having something to do with the region or its culture. This Detour was Manual (old-fashioned) or Automatic (new-fangled). In Manual, it was actually manual labor as teams had to fill several bags of camel feed, seal them, then lug and stack them. In Automatic, there were really neat little robotic jockeys they had to attach to the back of camels, then complete a race.

Some of the teams wanted to do the camel race, but couldn't find it so they went to Manual. It seems the teams who got very lost found the camel racing. Tyler and James drove aimlessly and hopelessly through the streets of Kuwait City, but not as aimlessly and hopelessly as did Peter and Sarah. The Pretty Boys took it well under the circumstances, not blamiming each other for being lost, but very disappointed. In contrast, Peter blamed Sarah, snapped at her and insulted her. Finally, the Boy Toys found the camel racing and made quick work of the task. Peter and Sarah were still searching for the Manual task in the dark.

The arrival oreger at the Pit Stop was as follows:

1. David and Mary - Came in long ahead of the others thanks to the ChoBros and the Fast Forward. They also won a trip for two to Jamaica for placing first.
2. Dustin/Kandice
3. Rob/Kimberly
4. Lyn/Karlyn
5. Erwin/Godwin
6. Tyler/James
7. Sarah/Peter - eliminated from the race.

The Good

• Sarah dumped Peter at the Pit Stop confessional. She said he wasn't the kind, compassionate, caring sort of amny she desires. You go, girl!
• The ChoBros are fantastic. I bet their parents are proud of them. They even got a local police officer to lead them at one point.

The Bad

• Lyn and Karlyn were very nasty to the Beauty Queens and I thought they treated the locals very abruptly in doing so. They wanted the locals to not give the other team directions and practically yanked at them. Sheesh!
• Peter in general.

The Ugly (American)

• The notable Kimberly/Rob exchange of the week when instructed to go by a certain mosque: Kimberly: "We have to go by the grand mass." Rob: "Mosque. Grande Mosque. It's not a street name." Kim: "Whatever."

I want Rob and Kimberly out next.